My wife an I are also looking at trucks. In our case, I feel like the traditional husband / wife roles are reversed on this issue. I don't think we really need a truck, but she really wants one. I don't feel we haul things often enough to justify the cost. We also need a vehicle that can haul at least four people, so we're looking for the crew cab. After our first round of research we are leaning towards a Ford F150 XLT with 2.6L Ecoboost. With all of the incentives that seems like the best value. If we take a truck out of a loaner program we can get it down to about $37,000 pre-tax. If someone happens to know of a better value, please post them here.